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RETAIL
January/February 2018 StudentHousingBusiness.com
78
includes a mix of regional, local
and national tenants. The national
tenant is typically more commu-
nity serving. You can't focus solely
on the student — especially the
students within your project —
and you can't focus purely on the
community because it is within a
student housing community."
"The really successful projects
are working to appeal to both the
residents within the community,
the overall student population,
the overall university commu-
nity including faculty and staff,
and the surrounding population
that live within the community
at large," continues Talbot. "You
really need to be able to have retail
that is appealing to all of those
groups to be successful."
"Fast casual food, and beverage
and the offshoots thereof tend to
do well in student housing proj-
ects," says Batsell of ACC. "Any-
thing that is consumable seems
to do better. I would say 60 to 70
percent of our retail is made up
of food users and a lot of that is
driven by the fact that students
seem to have an unlimited budget
when it comes to food."
Stein of MSC University agrees.
"On average, the retailers that
work best in a student housing
property are food and beverage
users," he says.
Retailers are also becoming
more attracted to opening on and
adjacent to college campuses. In
the past few years, Target has
opened small-format stores on
college campuses across the coun-
try. "Our stores range in size from
12,000 to 30,000 square feet and
are on or near college campuses
where there's typically high den-
sity, few nearby retail options and
a demographic that already has
high affinity for the Target brand,"
says Laurie Mahowald, Target's
vice president of real estate. "All
of our campus stores are near
student housing, though many
are located directly in mixed-use
developments alongside student
housing, such as our stores near
the University of Florida, Gaines-
ville and University of Southern
California."
"Our teams spend a lot of time
talking to our guests before open-
ing a store to be sure we're creat-
ing a relevant shopping experi-
ence that will fit the needs and
preferences of the surrounding
community," continues Mahow-
ald. "For a store on or near a
college campus, we know we're
catering to a large student popu-
lation, but we're also mindful of
the neighbors who will also call
that particular Target 'their' store.
We consider that mix in every-
thing we do — from the location
we choose, to the way our teams
design the store and the assort-
ment — so we can meet the needs
of both groups, and create a wel-
coming and convenient shopping
experience for all. For instance,
when we opened our store on the
University of Minnesota campus,
we adjusted our assortment of bed
sheets to match the uniquely sized
beds provided by student housing
in the same building."
Future Development
In the future, it is likely that we
will continue to see a mix of uses
in student housing developments
both on- and off-campus. "Proj-
ects that are proximate to campus
and have demand drivers beyond
the residents living above will
continue to be strategic retail loca-
tions," says Wiedner of Core Spac-
es. "We are seeing an increased
interest from several national
retailers that recognize the buying
power of the student population.
Retail, beyond the student hous-
ing industry, is focusing on the
pedestrian experience, and getting
into a 'Main and Main' location
on campus is becoming a much
bigger focus for them. Restaurants
will always be popular, but we
will continue to see more service
related businesses and grocery
concepts."
Target is currently working on
expanding its presence around
universities. "We're always
exploring opportunities to bring
Target into new areas so we can
serve new guests," says Mahow-
ald. "In 2018, we've announced
plans to open 30 new small-for-
mat stores — putting us on track
to operate more than 130 small-
format stores by the end of 2019.
As we grow our store base across
the country, you can certainly
expect we'll announce more new
stores near college campuses in
the future."
"Student housing and retail are
a shared space where both the
consumer and the retailer co-exist,
which can form a strong rela-
tionship between the two," she
continues. "Operationally, the
more retailers and student hous-
ing developers know about each
other, such as having clear under-
standing of expectations, timing
and requirements on both sides,
the better it works."
"I think we are at a stage in
mixed-use student housing where
municipalities are realizing that
every location that is great for
student housing is not necessar-
ily great for retail," says Barton of
EdR. "A number of developments
across the country have vacant
retail, which was forced on them
through zoning code. At the end
of the day, neither a city nor a
developer gets to determine that
a location is good for retail; the
market does. I believe we are all
realizing that and I hope what we
will see in the future is smarter
retail, more thoughtful retail, but
not necessarily more retail."
At the end of the day, one other
thing retail does is provide stu-
dents with more opportunities to
connect with others and the com-
munity itself.
"When you go back to school
for alumni weekend, and you
want to connect with friends,
it's cool to return to the places
you used to spend time at during
those years," says Stein of MSC
University. "Retail allows you to
re-live that experience. Chances
are, when your parents have taken
you to the university they used to
go to throughout your life, they've
talked about the retail — the res-
taurants they went to, the places
where they went to have a drink,
where they went to celebrate a
team win, where they went to
mourn a loss. Retail is where peo-
ple share experiences. It's a real-
ly powerful thing to think about
what it can do as part of that life
cycle of student experience. We
really believe that it can be some-
thing that can help the maturation
of this population." SHB
The Standard Gainesville by Landmark Properties offers retail space
occupied by tenants, including Target,
near the University of Florida.
"
We are seeing an increased interest from several
national retailers that recognize the buying
power of the student population.
— Andrew Wiedner, Chief Investment Officer, Core Spaces